Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence
in the Performing Arts

The Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts is an annual prize that recognizes the highest level of artistic excellence and distinguished career achievement by a Canadian professional artist in dance, theatre or music. The prize is awarded on a four-year cycle – in dance, theatre, dance and music – and is in the amount of $30,000. The prize to be awarded in 2006 will be in the field of dance.

Walter Carsen established the endowment fund for the prize in February 2001 through a generous donation of $1.1 million to the Canada Council for the Arts. The Canada Council administers and promotes the prize.

Eligibility

Candidates must be professional artists who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The Canada Council defines a professional artist as someone who has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions), who is recognized as such by her or his peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition), who is committed to devoting more time to the artistic activity if financially feasible and who has a history of public presentation. Candidates in the current competition must have created, as creative and/or interpretive artists, an outstanding and distinguished body of work in classical or contemporary dance.

Ideally, the nominee’s work will have been recognized and respected for its artistic excellence by the nominee’s peers at the national and international levels. The nominee must be actively involved in the performing arts in Canada or have spent the majority of his or her artistic career in Canada. The nominee’s career will likely have covered a significant period of time.

This award is designed for recognition of individual achievement rather than for recognition of the work of an organization, but it may also recognize artistic partnerships or small ensembles in which each artist meets the eligibility requirements for the prize. No posthumous awards will be given.

Members of the board of the Canada Council for the Arts are not eligible to be considered for this prize during the course of their terms as members and for six months following the end of their term.

All Canada Council programs and prizes are accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.

Nomination Deadline

The deadline for the 2006 prize nominations is 3 April 2006. Nomination forms and all support documentation must be postmarked no later than the deadline date.

The Canada Council will not accept late nominations or those submitted by fax or email. Incomplete submissions and those that do not meet the requirements will not be presented to the peer assessment committee.

Nomination Process

Candidates may not apply for the prize; they must be nominated by a member of the Canadian professional performing arts community. Nominators are responsible for gathering the required documentation and submitting it with the Canada Council’s official nomination form. They must ensure that the documentation complies with the requirements set out in this information sheet. The nomination form is available, on request, from the Endowments and Prizes Section.

The Canada Council may submit additional nominations, with appropriate documentation, to the peer assessment committee.

Documentation

Nominators must create a separate package for each nominee, if they are nominating more than one candidate. The following items must be provided:

• the names and addresses of the nominator and the nominee, as well as their telephone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses;
  
• a statement or letter of up to two pages prepared and signed by the nominator, describing the artistic and lifetime achievements of the nominee and why the nominee should be awarded the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts;
  
• a current one-page biography of the nominee;
  
• a current professional curriculum vitae of the nominee, with emphasis on his or her achievements in the performing arts;
  
• evidence of the nominee’s Canadian citizenship or Canadian permanent residency status;
  
• a minimum of one and a maximum of three letters of support from professionals in the performing arts community in Canada and/or abroad. The content of the nomination and support letters has considerable impact on each nomination package. Therefore, nominators should ensure that all material is current and thorough.

The Canada Council will not accept bound materials (e.g. stapled, or cerlox or spiral bound) to ensure ease of copying. Originals should not be sent. The Canada Council for the Arts is not responsible for the loss or damage, whatever the cause, of support material.

Assessment of Applications (2006 Prize in Dance)

A peer assessment committee, composed of experienced professionals selected by the Canada Council for the Arts for their expertise in dance, will assess the nominations and choose the laureate. The committee may include one expert from outside Canada. Members are also chosen to ensure fair representation of gender, the two official languages, the various regions and cultures of Canada, and the various types of artistic practices within the dance community. All decisions of the committee are final.

The principal assessment criteria for the prize will be the artistic excellence of the artist’s work (including originality, creativity, innovation, technical mastery and impact) and the significance of the artist’s achievements over the course of his or her career.

Notification of Results

The laureate will be notified privately by telephone within four months of the deadline date. Non-winning nominees and their nominators will be notified of the results by letter, after the public announcement of the laureate (which may take place somewhat later than four months after the deadline date). Except for notification of the laureate, results are not released over the telephone.

Conditions of Receiving the Award

Once the laureate has been contacted, he or she must confirm acceptance of the prize. Note that the laureate must not inform anyone that he or she has been chosen as the recipient of the prize before the Canada Council makes its official announcement.

The nominee must agree that all the documentation submitted becomes the property of the Canada Council for use in any publicity or promotion accompanying the prize. He or she must also agree to allow his or her photographs and public information to be used for promotion of the prizes and in other Canada Council promotional initiatives. The laureate must also agree to participate fully in all prize activities, including media conferences, ceremonies, receptions and other related events.

Further Information

This prize information provides a summary of the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.  For further information or to obtain a nomination form, contact Janet Riedel Pigott, Acting Director, Endowments and Prizes. 

Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or (613) 566-4414, ext. 5041

TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired
callers: (613) 565-5194

Fax: (613) 566-4430 

Endowments and Prizes
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8

December 2005

2006 Nomination Form for Music

Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts (pdf, 133 KB)